User:Jack Sebastian/Desiree Bassett

Desireé Bassett (born Desireé Apolonio Bassett September 11, 1992) is an American rock music guitarist and recording artist. Considered a child prodigy, she has performed alongside mainline performers such as Sammy Hagar, Living Color, the Marshall Tucker Band and members of the Allman Brothers Band. She was named "Best Musician" by Talent America in 2005, has released two studio albums and has played numerous gigs on both coasts, all before her 17th birthday.

Early life
Bassett was born in New Haven, Connecticut to Daniel (who also acts as her manager ) and Myrna Bassett. At 2 years old, Bassett's musical ability was encouraged by her parents after hearing her sing herself to sleep singing Reba McEntire songs. A year later, she began playing a half-size Lotus guitar. Her father recalls when she surpassed his ability at guitar when, at 4½, she was correcting his playing mistakes. The defining moment for him came after listening to his daughter play an intricate Satriani song that he himself had spent almost ten years to learn, without success:

She played it in its entirety and nailed it, note for note...And I thought, something's really going on here. - Dan Bassett

By the time she was 5, her father began training her on a full-sized 1983 Ibanez Roadstar II. At 8, she played her first competition at the local fair grounds playing a Joe Satriani cover, coming in second place after a pair of Russian dancers. Bassett's only concern was whether they could go on the Ferris Wheel or not. At 9, she began taking singing and guitar lessons at the University of Connecticut music program, where it was discovered she had perfect pitch and could play by ear. In short order, she began giving lessons herself. In addition to study, Bassett counts among her influences at the time the music of Jeff Beck, Rick Emmett, Jimi Hendrix, Reba McEntire, the Allman Brothers and her personal idol Joe Satriani, getting to meet the latter in 2006.

"The future of rock and roll"
In 2005, Bassett was voted Talent America’s "Musician of the Year" in New York City. After Bassett perfomed on the side stage at Ozzfest in Hartford, CT, Bassett started to become prominent in the local and national music community, playing open microphone events around Connecticut. Her father calls her “the real deal, (a) real modern-day Hannah Montana, who goes to school by day, practices and plays clubs and festivals at night.”

Bassist Doug Wimbish discovered Bassett at an open mike in Hartford, Connecticut and invited her to play at his annual Wim-Bash the following night. She was now playing shows in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont and performing alongside artists like Living Colour, Andy Aledort, some members of the Allman Brothers Band, Johnny Vibrato, Pete Scheips Band, and the XY Eli Band among others. During this time, Bassett recorded five different songs in August 2005 at Pat Keegan Studios in Wallingford, CT, performing all of the instruments. Apart from creating the CD, Bassett also created the artwork and actively sold several hundred copies of the CD.

In September, 2005, Bassett played an outdoor event at the Meriden Motorcycle Club to an audience of several hundred people before leaving to perform at another outdoor event in Ashford, where she was the featured artist. Local musicians in the area heard her play, many offering their services afterwards as band members. The resulting group, the Time Machine, was initally composed of bassist David Stoltz (later Rob Laramie ), a former member of the Dickey Betts Band and Robert Gottfried. By November, she had built a local following.

In December 2005 she entered the Olympics of Entertainment in New York City where she was selected from several hundred entrants as one of 16 finalists, and, despite a bad head cold a tooth extraction, she performed and won the Silver Medal. She played gigs in Hartford CT, with Kal David, Andy Aledort, and the band Living Colour before several hundred screaming fans who couldn’t believe their eyes and ears. She is only the second person asked to sit in with the band - the other being Carlos Santana. Shortly afterwards, she was invited to perform at the 2006 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, which led to an endorsement offered directly by Mr. and Mrs. Peavey of Peavey Amps. Subsequent endorsements followed from Schecter Guitar Research, as well as production agreements from Nova Sound Studios and Long View Farm Studios recording studios in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. When she returned the following year to play at the NAMM Show, she was introduced as "the future of rock and roll."

In 2002, Bassett sat in with the Marshall Tucker Band at a benefit Concert in Willimantic, Connecticut, and began developing her first CD, Power & Force. During production, she continued performing locally, and in August of 2008, opened for Jimmie Vaughn, Stevie Ray Vaughn's brother. Shortly afterward, Bassett play lead guitar for Sammy Hagar and his band at the MGM Grand Foxwoods Casino; when she was done performing, Hagar told the audience to "put that ... on YouTube, okay! Scare them people to death." To date, more than two dozen of her video performances are available on YouTube (and mostly mirrored at Bassett's own website).

Power & Force
In 2008, when Bassett turned 16 she had two birthday parties, one with her classmates and friends (a week before her actual birthday), and one for the release of her first CD. Bassett later took the opportunity to have it remixed and remastered, renamed and released as Power & Force Volume II just before 2009. The second release received a full page endorsement ad by CDBaby. This led Bassett to become a member of ASCAP as a writer and composer with several songs listed and copyrighted in the Library of Congress.

Darkside, a Russian online music magazine noted that the live-performance release constituted "amateur cognac", in that it demonstrated Bassett's youthful agility yet demonstrated little else, calling attention to the repetitive arrangement of "riff, solo, riff solo, etc."

After the release of Power & Force Vol. II, Bassett began working on her third CD while playing at the Wolf's Den at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. That same month, Bassett also also performed at the Woodstock's 40th anniversary music festival where she covered Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with original percussionist Geraldo Velez on drums, ending the night with Jimi's song, Purple Haze. Shortly afterwards. she formed the independent label, "Desiree Bassett LLC" with her father.

Bassett notes that performing for older fans “can be kind of intimidating, but (the band members) are willing to support me and how I want to do things.” Her band, Desiree and The Time Machine, is Robert Gottfried and Robert Laramie, who replaced Stolz in 2008. “They are phenomenal,” Dan Bassett said of Gottfried and Laramie. “So it’s not like we just stuck her out there all alone. They’re both in their late 50s, so that’s about 100 years of experience playing behind her.”

Themes and musical style
"I have a tendency to be shy around people...but when I get on stage all of that shyness seems to float away and it’s like a whole different world."—Desireé Bassett Bassett considers herself primarily an instrumental player, citing the influence of Satriani's music on her. "But at the same time I realize that people connect to songs that have lyrics, sometimes more so than instrumentals." In Power & Force II, she sings on just three of the 10 songs — “Another Day,” “Never Back Down” and “Love Her.” ; her third album will feature lyrics in about half of the 13 tracks.

When she was asked in an interview with Southern Fried Magazine if being an attractive young woman helped or hindered in attracting new fans, Bassett notes that it does both. "I want to be known as a great guitarist, not just a girl who can play because being a guitarist shouldn’t be looked at as just for men, but also for women and kids as well."

Lisa Smith Cotharn, of of the blog The End Zone notes that calling Bassett 'the best 15 year old girl guitarist in the world' is an understatement. "She should have been billed as the best 15 year old girl guitarist ... ever:"

(When she plays) she is communicating: 'Isn't getting to stand up here and play guitar the awesomest thing ever?!' And I watch her, and I talk back to the computer monitor: 'Yes! Yes, it actually IS the awesomest thing ever!'

In their evaluation of Power & Force, the Russian online music magazine Darkside notes that Bassett's style of play "brings back some echoes of such masters of rock guitar, like Jimmy Hendrix and Jimmy Page."

Personal life
"When I was being featured in magazines and winning contests...people really started to notice me. All of a sudden a bunch of people wanted to be my friend, and some of my classmates wanted my autograph, which was a bit weird at first. But, when I’m at school I just try and be a normal kid and do normal kid things, if I can."—Desireé Bassett

Bassett currently attends E. O. Smith High School as a senior in Ashford, Connecticut. She has a brother, Justin and a younger sister Jessica, a multi-talented musician as well who on special occasions acts as her backup singer on special occasions. .

Bassett currently owns fifteen guitars, one of which has been signed by Hagar, Satriani, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Anthony, formerly of Van Halen. She practices from two to eight hours a day in her music studio, which used to be the family garage.

She has stated in interviews that after high school, she intends to pursue her college education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts while continuing to work as a performer, though she has applications in at other universities. If a career in music doesn't work out, she notes that she would like a career in the graphic arts or jewelry-making.

Bassett also notes a fondness for riding quads and dirt bikes on her family's 12-acre property ever since she was five years old. "I'm kinda trying to lay off jumps," noting the risk of injury to her hands.

Discography

 * Power & Force (2008)
 * Power & Force Vol. II (2009)